Page 87 of The Lunatics

She laughed. “You’ve always been one of my favorites. So easygoing. So quick with a joke or some teasing comment. And up here in the wilderness, I never thought I’d have to worry about you.” Her gaze slid sideways, to Michael. “And then—plot twist!—you get bonded to a Kolbeck.”

I skirted around the fact that she knew I was easygoing and liked to tease people. Because if I fixated on it, I might start shaking. “Will you let him go?” I asked. Him being here but not being here was seriously chafing at the bond. At first, I was too afraid for us to fixate on it, but now that the threat of imminent death had seemed to pass, his dull, gray presence in the back of my mind was starting to really freak me out.

“In a minute. I promise,” she said. “There are things we need to discuss.”

“Like?”

“Like how dangerous the city is for you. I thralled that vampire to keep tabs on you through it, but then I saw the witch waiting for you to pass in the alleyway.”

“Why did you try to kill her? Why kill those two wolves? I thought you valued life.”

Her expression darkened. “The witch seemed like she was up to no good. And if it’s between letting a witch live or risk her harming you in some way, I’ll kill the witch every time. I might not like it, but I’ll do it. As for the wolves, the vampire took them on his own before I took him. I merely used the fact to antagonize Michael.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to provoke him and see if the bond had weakened his control.”

“Why attack him afterward?”

“To see if the bond had already changed him. Made him faster, stronger. But you should know, he was never in any real danger from me.”

“Why did you let us kill that vampire?”

“I didn’tletyou do anything. My power doesn’t transfer to the beings I thrall, which is why you saw through the glamour and Michael was able to best me.” The corners of her lips turned down in distaste. “And good riddance, honestly. That vampire was a disgusting creature. If you hadn’t killed him, I would have driven him into the sun when I was done with him.”

So, she abhorred murder but readily confessed to wanting to murder two beings? Okay then. Clearly her moral compass pointed in a different direction than mine did. “Why are you being so forthcoming?”

She leveled her gaze at me. “Because I want you to trust me. Work with me. A werewolf goddess corrupted a bonding ceremony and dragged one of the surviving MacKenzie wolves into her schemes, and I need to know why.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. Here it was, near confirmation of Her existence. And a chance to find out the truth once and for all. Someone as old as this vampire mustknowthings. “How did shifters come into being?”

She only grinned. “Some advice, my sweet wolf? Don’t go searching for answers to questions you’re not yet ready to hear. And trust me, you’re not ready for these.”

“But you know?” I demanded.

She hesitated a moment, then nodded.

I let out a heavy exhale. She believed the Goddess was real. That it was Her and not witches who had corrupted the ceremony in order to drag me and who knew how many other wolves intoHer divine scheme. I was meant to be with Michael. I was on this path for a reason.

“Oh, it was your Goddess, all right,” she said. “There were traces of divinity in that field afterward.”

I rocked back against the headboard. She could sense divinity?

She grimaced. “Kid, you live as long as me and you can sense all sorts of shit you really wish you couldn’t.”

What I really wished was that she’d stop plucking thoughts from my mind.

“I can’t help it,” she said. “You think loud.”

What the hell did that mean? I checked the bars on my power. They were at their default level. I wasn’t leaking metaphysical mojo all over the place or anything.

“It has nothing to do with your power,” she said. “Some people are just louder, mentally, than others.” She looked at Michael. “Take him, for example. Before I put him under, I got almost nothing.”

Because he muted himself so much?

“Maybe,” the vampire said.

“What should I call you, by the way?” I asked her.